libodbc

Update 05-05-2010: This issue still exists on the new Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx). The dist-upgrade will override any version locks that you have made on libodbc-ruby1.8 and install version 0.9997-2 (and lock it). So after a dist-upgrade you will have to remove libodbc-ruby1.8 and install the older version again.

I have the dubious honor of developing on a Rails application, that runs on top of Microsoft SQL Server. This has given some headaches at our most recent system upgrades.

The problem on both OS’es lies in the package libodbc-ruby1.8. But it is actually stranger than you might expect, which I will explain below.

Ubuntu first

We’ll start off with Ubuntu. Fire up Synaptic Package Manger and search for libodbc-ruby1.8. You will see, that the distribution package is versioned 0.9997-2. You need to uninstall this and install version 0.9995-1 instead. You can download version 0.9995-1 here: http://packages.ubuntu.com/hu/hardy/i386/libodbc-ruby1.8/download

Now install it with apt-get and… problem solved. Please note however that your automatic package update will revert to version 0.9997-2 unless you uncheck it before running the update.